50 Midlife Crisis Quotes About The Halfway Point of Life

Check out these Midlife Crisis quotes to help you learn how others have dealt with this period in life.

A midlife crisis is a period in life that usually happens to a person between the ages of 40 and 60, where someone questions their purpose in life.

Oftentimes they lose self-confidence and struggle with who they are, what they have accomplished, and what the rest of their lives will look like.

Here are some symptoms of a midlife crisis:

• Irritability and/or anxiety
• Body transformation – weight gain or loss
• Reckless Behavior
• Impulsive Decisions
• Insomnia
• Living in regret
• Big changes in life, such as career or relationships
• Religious transitions or questioning

Next year, I’ll turn 40, so I’m doing everything I can to live intentionally now to avoid having a midlife crisis of my own!

Take a look at these Midlife Crisis quotes to learn more about this transitional part of life.

Best Midlife Crisis Quotes

Here are some quotes to get you thinking about midlife.

1. “The mid-life crisis hits men harder than women.” — Sonia Johnson

2. “I say I have a midlife crisis every time I start and finish a record.” — Mika

3. “Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age, and I’ve ordered the Ferrari.” — Keanu Reeves

4. “The goal is for your mid-life crisis to turn into a mid-life discovery.” — Joan Anderson

5. “The lack of milestones can make midlife feel like unchartered territory.” — Terri Hanson

6.“You can see it as a mid-life crisis, or you can see it as a mid-life awakening.” — Dan Pearce

7. “A midlife crisis is the yearning to explore after many years spend exploiting.” — Pedro Domingos

8. “Middle age is a pause to re-examine what we have done and what we will do in the future.” — Frank Natale

9. “The mid-life crisis is just those times when you’re not so into the things you were when you were younger.” — Jay Kay

10. “Midlife is that pivotal moment when you can finally say that you basically have all your shit together, and then your body starts falling apart.” — Comic Strip Mama

Deep Midlife Crisis Quotes

These quotes about hitting midlife will make you think.

11. “I’m having a midlife crisis. The gray hairs are not passing, but I am trying to age with dignity.” — Freddie Prinze Jr.

12. “Midlife is not the time to disenchant ourselves. It’s a time to turn on all our magic in full force.” — Marianne Williamson

13. “The Hollywood Foreign Press has just given me a time out from my 20-year midlife crisis. My heartfelt thanks to them.” — Colin Firth

14. “Women’s liberation and the male midlife crisis were the same search: for personal fulfillment, common values, mutual respect, love.” — Warren Farrell

15. “Occasionally the old urge surfaces, and we label it with names that suggest psychological aberrations: the big chill, a midlife crisis.” — Tim Cahill

16. “Most people who experience midlife crises have spent their entire lives raising a family or working in a career. They haven’t had the time to ask the important questions in life.” — Mateo Sol

Preventing a Midlife Crisis Quotes

Here are a few thoughts about how to avoid hitting a midlife crisis.

17. “It is never too late to start living the life you wish you had.” — Lailah Gifty Akita

18. “Middle school is for being like everyone else; middle age is for being like yourself.” — Victoria Moran

19. “If you live your life all out today, not only is it fun, but you are preventing a midlife crisis.” — Daphne Oz

20. “Old age is not a disease; it is strength and survivorship. Triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses.” — Maggie Kuhn

Quotes About Midlife

If you’ve reached midlife, you may be able to relate to these quotes. 

21. “I definitely don’t think I’m going to have a mid-life crisis.” — Daniel Wu

22. “Aging is inevitable, but getting ‘old’ is entirely optional.” — Lisa Levine

23. “I became despondent prematurely. I had my mid-life crisis when I was 16.” — Will Poulter

24. “Hollywood actresses age in dog years. I’m just around the corner from my midlife crisis.” — Amber Heard

25. “You know, I let a few years go by until I hit my midlife crisis. Then that can be documented on film.” — Claire Danes

26. “Midlife crisis is that moment when you realize your children and your clothes are about the same age.” — William D Tammeus

27. “The midlife crisis you’re having at 30 is indulgent, but the midlife crisis you have at 45 is to an extent thrust upon you.” — Moby

28. “Midlife is the time to let go of an overdominant ego and to contemplate the deeper significance of human existence.” — Carl Gustav Jung

29. “Midlife is about surrendering things that no longer matter, not because our lives are in decline, but because they’re on an incline.” — Marianne Williamson

30. “By midlife, we’re usually aware enough to understand which of our issues most need attention. We’ve learned where we’re strong, but also where we’re weak.” — Marianne Williamson

Midlife Crisis Quotes for Everyone Approaching Middle Age

31. “One day I woke up, had an early mid-life crisis, and decided it all had to change.” — Greg Davies

32. “Middle age is not the beginning of decline, but a time to reach for the highest in ourselves.” — Frank Natale

33. “It was mid-life crisis time, and you can’t have more of a mid-life crisis than going off on a motorbike.” — Dave Myers

34. “I like my life. You hear about these guys having midlife crises – I don’t see that happening to me.” — Harry Connick, Jr. 

35. “During my completely soul-shredding midlife crisis at the age of twenty-eight, I felt sure I had peaked too soon.” — Jennifer Harrison

36. “Sometimes I think maybe it was my spectacular mid-life crisis. Some people buy expensive cars, and I wrote a novel.” — Deborah Harkness

37. “It’s kind of like a midlife crisis kind of thing. When you turn 40, you have to run the marathon while all the parts still work properly.” — Joe Bastianich

38. “For many women who have been caring for and putting others first, midlife is the time when there’s finally space to start thinking about you.” — Terri Hanson

39. “You know you’ve officially hit a midlife crisis when you finally start feeling like you have your life together and your body starts falling apart.” — Tanya Masse

40. “I think midlife crisis is just a point where people’s careers have reached some plateau, and they have to reflect on their personal relationships.” — Bill Murray

More Quotes About Having a Midlife Crisis

Here are several more quotes sharing perspectives about having a midlife crisis.

41. “My generation is having its midlife crisis in its 20s.” — Edward Norton

42. “You can’t have a mid-life crisis in the airline industry because every day is a crisis.” — Herb Kelleher

43. “There is some debate in professional circles about whether the so-called ‘midlife crisis’ exists.” — James Hollis

44. ‘“I had kind of a midlife crisis at twenty, which probably doesn’t auger well for my longevity.” — David Foster Wallace

45. “Turn your midlife crisis to your own advantage by making it a time for renewal of your body and mind, rather than stand by helplessly and watch them decline.” — Jane Brody

46. “It’s bad timing, but a lot of kids become teenagers just as their parents are hitting their mid-life crisis. So everybody’s miserable and confused and seeking that new sense of identity.” — Laurie Halse Anderson

47. “In this sense, midlife is a drama more worthy of a playwright than a scholar. We are characters in the play, caught at the opening of the second act, and we don’t know what will happen next.” — Mark Gerzon

48. “A motorcycle is a vehicle of change, after all. It puts the wheels beneath a midlife crisis, or a coming-of-age saga, or even just the discovery of something new, something you didn’t realize was there.” — Lily Brooks-Dalton

49. “Midlife crisis begins sometimes in your 40s when you look at your life and think, ‘Is this all?’ And it ends about ten years later when you look at your life again and think, ‘Actually, this is pretty good.’” — Donald Richie

50. “There was a time when people had the decency to wait until they were approaching 50 to have a mid-life crisis. Now it seems many thirtysomethings find themselves succumbing to existential navel-gazing.” — Mark Barrowcliffe

What Are Some Ways to Cope With a Midlife Crisis?

Struggling with your transition into midlife is a normal thing, but here are some coping strategies:

• Prioritize Self-Care – no matter what the future holds or what you have done in the past, it is important to take care of yourself
• Look at aging through a positive lens
• Acknowledge your feelings and discuss them with your loved ones or a professional
• Accept that change is inevitable and that you can handle it

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